This invention relates to an improved mobile floor cleaner, such as might be used to sanitize and sweep or vacuum a rug or other floor surface. More particularly, this invention relates to a sanitizer attachment that sprays a fluid or fluid and gas spray behind and into the path of movement of a mobile floor cleaner to which it is either fixedly or removably attached.
In the prior floor cleaning art, it has long been a practice to (1) sweep or vacuum a floor or floor-like surface and and then, during another separate step, (2) spray the surface with a fluid or fluid and gas spray. The spray is then left to dry on the surface, and the remnant, if any, is not removed until later--perhaps during the next floor cleaning operation, when the surface is again (1) swept or vacuumed and then (2) sprayed.
The second fluid or fluid and gas spraying step may serve many diverse functions. For example, it can serve to disinfect the surface, or it can work as an agent for debris removal from the surface during the next cleaning, sweeping, or vaccuming operation. Both objectives are achieved by spraying SaniMaster Solution, a product of ServiceMaster Industries, Inc., on the surface during the second spraying step noted above.
In the prior art, however, it has also long been a practice to clean or sanitize a rug or other floor or floor-like surface in one step by first spraying a fluid or fluid and gas mixture onto the surface and immediately thereafter removing the fluid from the surface by means of a vacuum or other debris and fluid removing device attached to the spraying mechanism. Since such spraying and fluid and debris removing devices are attached to each other, such devices allow for one-step spraying and subsequent fluid and debris removal from the surface.
As noted above, however, it is sometimes desirable to reverse the sequence of such one step procedures--to first sweep or vacuum a surface and then spray the surface with a fluid or fluid and gas mixture, leaving the spray to dry on or in the surface and remain there until later removal of the dried remnant during a subsequent cleaning, sweeping or vacuuming operation. The one-step devices in the prior art described above cannot provide for a one-step method of first sweeping or vacuuming a surface and then spraying the surface with a fluid or fluid and gas spray, which is left to dry on the surface. Yet the methods in the prior art for first sweeping or vacuuming and then spraying a floor or floor-like surface are all two-step processes, which are cumbersome and time consuming. Hence, it is an object of the instant invention to attempt to reduce the inefficiency of such two step processes by providing an apparatus for first sweeping or vacuuming a surface and then spraying the surface with a fluid or fluid and gas spray--all in one step.
There are also devices in the prior art, such as the ServiceMaster BOVAC hospital carpet vacuum, that have a plurality of air filters and debris catching hoppers removably attached to them. Though such devices do sweep or vacuum the rug or other floor or floor-like surfaces over which they pass, they have no capability for spraying a fluid or fluid and gas mixture onto the surface. Thus, it is also an object of this invention to provide an attachment that will spray a fluid or fluid and gas spray behind the path of travel of such prior art devices. Another object is to create a spraying attachment that will removably attach in place of one or more filters or hoppers in devices such as the ServiceMaster BOVAC hospital carpet vacuum. An even further object is to provide for devices like the BOVAC hospital carpet vacuum a filter replacing spraying attachment that will also serve a filtering function and, where necessary, pass the air to be filtered to any further filters contained within the floor cleaning device.
Lastly, sweeping or vacuum cleaners in the prior art, such as the ServiceMaster BOVAC hospital carpet vacuum, are also sometimes self-propelled. Such self-propelled devices will move the cleaner when a switch or handle is thrown, pushed, or pulled one way and will stop moving the cleaner when the switch or handle is thrown, pushed, or pulled in another direction. It is therefore yet another object of this invention to provide a sanitizer attachment for such self-propelled cleaners that will automatically start spraying when the cleaner moves and stop spraying when the cleaner stops moving.
There are other purposes and objects of the present invention. They will appear as the specification proceeds.